Candidate: The candidate has been involved in basic science, clinical, and epidemiological research throughout her undergraduate, pre-doctoral, and post-doctoral studies. This has resulted in a commitment to conduct patient-oriented research in order to better understand the health of the oral cavity in older adults and ultimately how to preserve oral function as people age. The immediate goal is to pursue intense training in multidisciplinary and collaborative settings with leaders in the fields of clinical research. The long-term goal is to become an independent clinical investigator who can combine expertise in geriatric dentistry with research protocols designed to identify connections between oral and systemic diseases and their treatments in the elderly. Environment: The University of Michigan provides an excellent setting for this program with its multidisciplinary approach to clinical research in geriatrics and its many training facilities. The General Clinical Research Center is world-renown for its clinical research advancements in the fields of medicine and dentistry. The School of Public Health has well established graduate training programs for health care professionals. Research rotations will take advantage of existing collaborations with other training locations: University of North Carolina, National Institutes of Health, and the Veterans Administration Medical Center in Ann Arbor. Research Career Development Plan: This multi-faceted plan spans the entire 5 year award period and includes a Masters in Science in Clinical Research Design and Statistical Analysis, supervised research rotations. and seminars on research responsibility, ethics, geriatric medicine and dentistry. Regular research evaluations are incorporated into each section of the program. Research Project: The overall theme is the investigation on the effects of systemic diseases and their treatments on oral health of the elderly. The first segment of the clinical research project focuses on the effect of anti-sialogogue medications on subjective and objective measures of salivary output in young and older subjects. This will be followed by investigating hypertension and its treatment on the oral cavity, conducting epidemiological surveys on the prevalence and severity of drug-induced salivary disorders among older adults, and ultimately the design of a protocol to prevent salivary disorders from causing oral diseases as a consequence of medication intake.